Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Mosley Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2015 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)]

3. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the innovation fund for young people.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

I set up the £30 million innovation fund four years ago to test cutting-edge projects for helping disadvantaged young people: some of those most at risk of becoming NEET—not in education, employment or training—or falling in with gangs. Using social impact bonds, these projects are now proving they can deliver a return on the investment; 16,600 positive educational and employment outcomes have been achieved, each one an improvement in a young person’s prospects.

[Stephen Mosley]

One key factor of the innovation fund is the use of social investment. How effective does my right hon. Friend think social investment has been? What future does he foresee for social investment in future projects from his Department?

[Mr Duncan Smith]

The interesting thing about this development, which I hope has support on both sides of the House, is that these social investment bonds have advanced dramatically in the past four years, making the UK now a world leader in this, with lots of different Governments coming to ask how to implement it. With the tax relief that we have granted to social investment bonds, the future funding in many of these projects will involve more and more decisions being able to be taken by local government; it will be able to set individual projects up and fund them, without recourse to government, but with a return. So we will be paying for things that happen rather than things that might happen—that is the key.